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and drawbacks. Which system will work best is unique to each individual's situation. What is required and useful for one aquarium may be terrible inadequate for another. So, what are the important aspects to consider when choosing a lighting system?

First off, are there any animals in your tank that would require a certain lighting level? Most corals, anemones, clams and numerous other invertebrates contain symbiotic algae (called Zooxanthellae) that provide them with some portion of their nutrients. Providing the proper lighting level and spectrum for these algae will allow your animal to thrive; providing inadequate lighting will lead to the slow death of the animal.

Another common point of disagreement between marine aquarists is the matter of spectrum of the light. Different temperature bulbs (rated in color temperature of Kelvins) will output different parts of the visual spectrum, and some animals will react differently to various spectrums. Blue or actinic lights are favored by some since they allow certain corals to fluoresce, giving them that glow which typically elicits oohs and aahs from viewers. These blue-spectrum bulbs also penetrate the deepest in water (ever wonder why deep water looks blue?) and offer good usable light, especially for corals from a deeper habitat. The downside is that they generally offer poor growth in corals, having lower usable light for the photosynthetic process of the corals' symbiotic algae (you'll normally see this value expressed as PAR, or Photosynthetically Available Radiation). If you are simply setting up a display aquarium, then the choice of spectrum is really up to your own personal taste, as long as the lighting needs of the tank inhabitants are met. Often a midrange bulb (10-15K) supplemented with actinic lighting does well (if using halides), or a 50/50 mix of daylight (10K) and actinic lighting (available in specially made 50/50 bulbs) is the norm. If your goal is rapid growth and propagation, then a 5000-7000K bulb provides the most output for growth (this lighting also tend to be rather yellow and non-attractive).

Remember that the same coral may look completely different under different lighting spectrums, so be sure you're going to be able to live with your choice.

If you have plans to keep a reef tank, complete with corals, then it's quite likely than standard output fluorescents are not going to be sufficient to maintain the animals you're housing in the tank. On the flip side, using metal halides over

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